Selling a home is no different! You need to work all the networks where buyers are spending time. Good realtors know where buyers are hanging out. One misunderstood fact from sellers is that the agent already has a buyer in their hip pocket ready to buy. This generally is not the case. But realtors know where to find buyers and their agents. They network with them on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. They send out blasts to their offices and hold tours with groups of realtors. They get a buzz going about their new listing. This is why the first few weeks of a listing are so vital to moving the property.

Many don’t do open houses, but that is one way to find a buyer. We try to add one new element each day. In a month that is 30 different sources…  Initially, it is vital to develop great source material. Pictures taken by a realtor generally won’t produce results necessary to sell in this market. Also, every hundred dollars spent with a professional stager will return several times that. The source material and the home need a polished professional look. Virtual tours and professional brochures create quality source material. Secondly, the home needs to be priced right. When a house is first listed it tends to get the most action within the first month. It’s important to use that window to find the right price and bring buyers in:

1. Professional pictures
2. Staging consultation
3. Develop good source material
4. Price home right

These are just a few of the first steps to get you on your way to selling your Albuquerque home. Interview several agents and see who has the most solid system and track record. Are they open to using everything from Craig’s List and Realtor.com to open houses and social media? Do they blog about their listings? How do they reach out to the agent community. The MLS is not enough in this market to guarantee your home sale. Use these initial steps to launch a solid marketing plan to sell your home.

Jim Gross

The world of real estate has finally caught up with other industries offering high-tech professional tools to everybody. First came the ability to find lower fares than a travel agent could online. Then came cameras offering 12 mega pixel resolution, camcorders offering high definition and recording studios in a box for every musician out there with a few hundred bucks. Real estate buyers have been able to use a limited version of the MLS for years. Agents have learned that giving potential buyers much broader access to listing data creates a customer that is savvy and ready to buy. Some of the more advanced searches include the ability to sort preferences, save searches and have homes meeting their exact preferences emailed to them daily to look at online.

At the same time, agents should be able to scan information about the city, schools, crime statistics or just about anything to plug them into the local market… realtime! It’s no more about mailing a relocation packet out of state, now when that right home hits the market through the local MLS, it get’s sent out the same day.

Search Albuquerque Real Estate

So what are the dangers of giving out this much information to buyers. After all, why do they need an agent if they can find the perfect home without ever sending us an email? The same reason it has been for the past fifty years – listing agents represent the seller. Their job is to get the most for the house that they can. As a buyer making an offer directly to the listing agent, do you really want to divulge exactly how much you have been preapproved for before your offer has been accepted? Do you want to go it alone with inspections when renegotiating a few items?

The best strategy, being that generally buyers do not have to pay an agent commission, then is to leverage the power of the internet to search for Albuquerque homes and along the way develop a relationship with an agent that will help you negotiate the best deal.

So, about March I decided to get a real estate license and jump in with both feet. My friends would ask – is real estate any better? I would say, well no, but iPods have not taken over real estate agent jobs yet…

I know there are so many people out there like me wondering can I really make a career change so late in life, YES! Once I got over the fact that I would not play guitar until I retired, I thanked God for all the many great gigs and the opportunity to do what I was so comfortable with.

Time to branch out into a new chapter. I chose to join Keller Williams in Albuquerque. While this business of contracts is enough to make a simple musician’s head spin, the people at KW really make it all worthwhile. They understand and embrace change, growth and support. If I ever had to go back into the workplace, I honestly could not think of a better place to begin. It seems as though the entire company nation-wide is experiencing the same surge of learning new technology, systems and support… all at the same time! There are so many agents posting great tips on how to succeed that I hardly know where to begin.

This is a season of change and a time for growth both personally and professionally. At the end of a long search it’s reassuring to know there are 1,000′s of other people in my company all pulling together to be successful. On days when the economy gets me down, I turn to other realtors and let the successful pros re-energize me (this is a perk that I never had working in the music industry). I see this as a life enriching challenge – finding the passion that I had with music and making a difference in Albuquerque real estate.

The latest home search tool to come onto the Albuquerque real estate scene is “MARKET INSIDER.” It seems that Keller Williams has found a new nitch seamlessly integrating this outstanding tool into its arsenal for home buyers to use. I think we are seeing a transition online where home buyers are educating themselves with knowledge to make the best decisions for their home purchase. Here are just a few of the great benefits that market Insider visitors can choose to use.

• Market Analysis
  Understand the difference between “listing prices” (what sellers are  asking for) and “sold prices” (what buyers are willing to pay). By  comparing these price trends, you’ll have a good idea of where the market is  heading. The median listing and sold property prices are calculated based on  the market activity each month.
• Community Information
  Gain valuable insight into a community by looking at household incomes, crime  risk, education levels attained, and potential for extreme weather. Use the map  to locate points of interest like shopping, restaurants, and healthcare services.
• Local Schools
  The quality of a school can greatly influence home values in an area. On this  page you’ll find detailed information on school districts, school ratings, test  scores by grade, student-teacher ratio, and much more.
• Compare Areas
  Compare where you live to a new location or multiple areas using current information on community summaries, market stability, schools, listing vs. sold price, buyer vs. seller market, and even smoking bans.
• Insider Tips
  Explore a wealth of information that will help you better understand the factors that impact the real estate market. Consider this page your reference library for resources, tips, and  techniques.

Jim Gross

For the past year Real Estate Video Talk has brought the latest in real estate technology. We feature great ideas for home sellers and buyers alike looking to stage their home, take solid photographs, add virtual tours and market properties online. Earlier this year I joined Keller Williams in Albuquerque, NM as an associate broker and have been looking at the very real problems from the inside. It has given me insight as to what agents are up against in this stagnant economy. I have spent hundreds of hours (and thousands of dollars) researching online marketing and subscribing to various programs.

I can honestly say that without a market nitch and screaming good marketing programs for our clients that newbie agents do not stand a chance in this market place. Proactive marketing including telemarketing, open houses, print advertising, blogs and social media campaigns are all necessary in this market. But what about a nitch? Something different? Not everybody can do expired listings, retired or military relocations. I am learning that you have to do limitless research and create a new market or find a new way to tap into an existing one.

Market Insider Keller Williams Albuquerque

The new property search systems that are offered on the MLS are a great way to stay in touch with people that are looking for real estate. I am trying to get a drip campaign going for every one of my prospects. “Drip” meaning that the MLS will automatically send new properties via email to clients that match their features, as they come on the market. Keller Williams has contracted with Market Leader to offer a brilliant way to allow buyers to use Market Insider to create their own saved searches. What is so great here is that it is designed for people looking online for real estate. The customer gets all the control to search and save at their leisure. People seem to love that!! Market Insider extends way beyond looking for homes. There is lots of great info about the community as well. Look for more about Market Insider as I gain more experience with it in the future.

One area that often overlooked is the music that goes into the tour. Most agents don’t really understand the basics of great photography let alone how to make a property shine with motion and music. It’s not as easy as it looks. I saw a tour in Albuquerque recently where the agent grabbed a Gypsy King’s tune and placed it behind the tour. At about $750,000 fine per use of a copyrighted song that can become real money fast for hungry record lables!

Our sister company, Virtual Tour Club has become a premiere real estate photographer in Albuquerque, NM shooting property for agents from many local companies including Keller Williams, Coldwell Banker, Remax and Prudential. But it doesn’t end there. Actually, that’s where the fun begins! Most of the music on our tours are written, produced and recorded locally. Here is a link to one of the latest recording sessions of “Heartstrings” which will be released later this year on the album “Dancing with Strings.” This piece will be featured on several local southwestern properties.

So as you look to sell your home, make sure that you choose an agent that is passionate about marketing homes online process which should include great pictures, tours and music to stimulate multiple senses from your viewers.

Jim Gross

What makes a real estate virtual tour stand out among the crowd? The one thing that none of the big virtual tour companies are talking about – the pictures! In the recording industry we say that it is hard to destroy a great album performance with bad mixing. Likewise, you can put all kinds of “band aids” like reverb and digital delay on a bad performance and, at best make it sound better. It will never sound GREAT. In other words, it is better to get it right… from the start.

You may have thought this blog would go into all the high tech virtual tour services like, high definition, brochures, branded and non-branded versions, virtual tour styles like 360, panoramic, video or montage. Actually none of that really matters if you shot your camera into a blinding window loaded with glare. The picture will be dark… except for the window, which will be clipped with white. So first treat the pictures. Follow these steps for better real estate pictures.

1. Can you afford NOT to hire a pro real estate photographer for this listing? If you answered yes… read on.

2. Plan to stage the property room by room and check for glare from the windows. Don’t shoot into bright windows. Shoot away from them for more balanced colors. If there is some huge ocean or mountain just outside the window then at least go shoot it at sunset when it is not so bright.

Virtual Tour Club Workshop Page

3. Use a wide angle lens or stand back as far as you can in the room to get most of the room in the shot.

4. Turn all the lights on throughout the house and use intimate lighting such as candles wherever you can.

5. Plan to spend a couple of hours with your pictures in a post production software like: Picasa, Gimp, Adobe Photoshop Elements or Lightroom to fix the pictures. Most professionals spend an hour in post production for every hour they shoot – the pros do it, so should you.

6. Straighten the image, color balance it, brighten, add detail and a little contrast.

Once you have done these steps you are ready to list the pictures on the MLS and make a tour.

Virtual Tour Club has produced a 30 minute real estate training webinar that teaches each of these points plus several others.

Jim Gross

Marketing Homes Online has put together a 30 minute training webinar for real estate companies that will really help agents make their MLS listings shine. Agents will focus on taking better pictures, using editing software to brighten pictures, making virtual tours on the MLS, open house webcasting and using social marketing for real estate.

Our workshop series is aimed at training realtors in some of the areas they don’t cover in real estate school, yet are vital to a professional listing that stands out. Real estate photography is tricky (even for the pros) because of the differences in lighting from room to room. Much of this can be remedied with post production software. We will cover taking photos for non professionals, staging the home, lighting, straightening, color correcting and brightening pictures.

We cover different types of virtual tours and how to place them on the internet for best exposure. Our workshops now incorporate forward thinking social media home promotion strategies such as producing real estate webcasts for new listings. These can be advertised on a blog, Facebook, Twitter or other social media. Agents now have the ability to give a live webcast tour of the property and stream it to their friends or fans.

Contact Virtual Tour Club to schedule a Marketing Homes Online webinar for your next office meeting.

Jim Gross

Last week we were in Albuquerque broadcasting an open house show for one of Rich Cederberg’s listings. Rich had set it all up in advance. The home owners were there to talk about the home and the many upgrades they added. Rich interviewed a mortgage expert to talk about possible financing alternatives. Some good friends were interviewed to give some testimonials about how well the property works.  I was the “camera-man” on this webcast. Although one agent can do the webcast with a laptop and webcam, we were blasted the entire show by people chatting online with us about the broadcast and the property. We didn’t expect that – or all the walk-in traffic that it generated.

While the broadcast was happening people were touring the home, doorbells were ringing, Facebook viewers were chatting online. Viewers were asking about the schools in the district via the live broadcast chat feature.  We had over 51 people “LIKE” the show on Facebook in the hour following the webcast. They wanted to know details about the home. They loved the interview with the property owners. There were at least 2-3 conversations going on throughout the room. I expected a quiet controlled studio environment for the webcast. I even told everyone to turn their cell phones off before the real estate broadcast. But the place was buzzing with activity.

Real Estate Show

After a few minutes I thought to myself, wow… this is exactly what I had wanted in a real estate broadcast… increased awareness and activity. People can be right there in the open house talking to the realtor while sitting in their pajamas on their sofa at home. Oh, we included a screen capture of home pictures and the professional tour of the home in the webcast. Easy since a virtual tour had been created for this property by the photographer.

All-in-all, not a bad use of live streaming internet combined with the personalization of Facebook. Who knows, it might just go viral one of these days!

Jim Gross

Real Estate Workshop:

Virtual Tour Club announces a new real estate workshops series to train agents in some of the areas that they do not cover in real estate school. They will run 45 minutes and focus on the following 5 home marketing areas. They are organized to teach agents to use existing resources to produce high end professional results. Agents in office meeting need a laptop with wireless internet (or) agency can provide an online computer with monitor and speakers. Agents may log into webcast at home. Topics covered include:

1. Photographing Homes

2. Photo Editing Technique

3. Choosing Virtual Tours

4. Creating Property Webcasts

5. Marketing Listings Online

To learn more or to schedule a date for your agency workshop contact us at 800.894-7033 or send us a request at virtualtourclub@aol.com.